Addressing the 65th FIFA Congress in Zurich, Kattner said that the world’s governing body of football plans to invest an overall of $4 billion in the sport of football between 2015 and 2018

Luzhniki Stadium being reconstructed for 2018 FIFA World Cup

ZURICH, May 29. /TASS/. The International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) will invest $185 million in 2016 for the preparations of the 2018 World Cup, which will be hosted by Russia, FIFA Financial Director Markus Kattner said on Friday.

Addressing the 65th FIFA Congress in Zurich, Kattner said that the world’s governing body of football plans to invest an overall of $4 billion in the sport of football between 2015 and 2018.

On Friday, the FIFA Congress, which is the supreme legislative body of the organization, is meeting in Zurich to discuss the most important football managerial issues. The meeting will be capped with the election of the president.

Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan and Joseph Blatter, who has been at the helm of FIFA since 1998, are the only two candidates in the presidential election, held every four years.

2018 World Cup in Russia

Russia is currently gearing up for the Preliminary Draw, which is the first major kick-off event ahead of the global tournament itself.

The draw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Competition will be held on July 25 in Russia’s second largest city of St. Petersburg with a total of 208 nations having signed up for the participation in the event.

It will be for the first time in the history of World Cups, when all national teams registered for the Preliminary Draw. Russia as the hosting nation automatically qualified for the championship and therefore is not taking part in the preliminary competition.

The first major kick-start event of the 2018 World Cup will be held at the historic Konstantinovsky Palace, a stronghold of Russia’s rich culture located on the Gulf of Finland’s stunning shoreline. It used to serve in the 18th century as one of the residences of Russia’s imperial family.

Russia won the bid to host the 2018 World Cup over four years ago in a tight race against the joint bid from England, Portugal and Spain and the joint bid on behalf of Belgium and the Netherlands.

Russia selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.

The matches of the 2018 World Cup will be held between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums located in the 11 mentioned above cities across Russia. Two of the stadiums are located in the Russian capital.